Funding coming slowly for Confederate monument move in Lakeland

Thursday

In one month, Lakeland has raised $8,955 of a targeted $225,000. At that rate, it will be another two years before the estimated funding is raised.

LAKELAND — The private funding to move the Confederate monument from Munn Park to Veterans Memorial Park is coming in, but at a very slow trickle.

The Lakeland City Commission voted May 7 to move the statue to the west side of the RP Funding Center, where other monuments to veterans are located, but declined to fund the move from city coffers. Instead, the commission is asking residents and interested parties to pass around the hat.

In one month, the city has raised $8,955 of a targeted $225,000. At that rate, it will be another two years before the estimated funding is raised, assuming interest doesn't wane.

A GoFundMe site the city set up to help facilitate donations has collected $1,405 from 21 donors in 29 days. That sum is included in the $8,955 total. Director of Communications Kevin Cook said Wednesday afternoon that no one has donated on the site in 16 days.

There is no Plan B for funding, City Manager Tony Delgado told The Ledger, though he alluded to conversations with commissioners in support of the move where they expressed concerns about the issue dragging on past December.

Under the Lakeland City Charter, the issue could be raised for a vote again in December, a year after the commission voted to move the monument.

In the meantime, the city's staff is continuing as directed, Delgado said. He expects to put a request to move the statue in front of the Historic Preservation Board in July and to seek bids for statue movers. The Historic Preservation Board, an independent body comprised of members appointed by the City Commission, would need to approve the change to the city's Munn Park Historic District.

He said the funding issue, if the dollars can't be raised, will be a question for the commission. Commissioner Phillip Walker had originally proposed city funding but couldn't get his colleagues to agree.

Local artist and children’s book author Fred Koehler launched a Kickstarter campaign to help the effort, inviting anyone to offer their time or talents for an online auction — work for donations — with proceeds going toward the monument relocation. On his Facebook page, he acknowledges that his effort might offend some people “and I’m not sorry.”

“I have so many friends who are among the poor, who are among the disenfranchised population, and I feel like I want to create a world where they feel welcome and equal,” Koehler said Wednesday.

Koehler's debut young adult novel, ''Garbage Island,'' is set to be published in the fall. He said he travels throughout the country, talking with young people of every walk of life about their lives. He said he believes the Confederate monuments throughout the country are a symbol of oppression of minorities.

“The best thing I can give them — it’s not books — it’s some sort of message to them that they’re equal and valued,” Koehler said.

Koehler said he is hoping to see artists donate their creations for the cause. He is also hoping players for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Tampa Bay Lightning might help fund the move, as they did with the monument in Hillsborough County. Although he doesn't know them — or anyone who does — he’d like to see the Pouncey twins, who grew up in Lakeland and now play for the NFL, chip in some money. Mike Pouncey is a center with the Los Angeles Chargers, while Maurkice Pouncey is a center for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both played at Lakeland High School.

“It’s a way for creatives, professionals and craftsmen to contribute to the move,” Koehler added.

Jo Ann Holmes, who started Lakeland’s efforts to move the monument in 2015, came again to speak to the City Commission this week.

“The city, having taken a step forward toward truth and reconciliation, seems to be again sliding backward with affronts to justice, fairness and community goodwill,” Holmes told the panel. “I was surprised and dismayed that Veterans Park was chosen as the site for relocation of the statue.”

She said that land, homes and businesses that were taken by eminent domain from black residents, even though they were compensated for their property, should not be the new home of a statue representing the Confederacy, which fought for Southern states to keep slavery legal.

“No one, of course, at the time of acquisition was aware that, in the future, a plan for a Veterans Park honoring the servicemen and women who served the United States armed services would also authorize inclusion of a statue of a Confederate soldier, which could, if pedestal and plinth are to be retained, tower over the monuments of those who fought for liberty and equality for all, as opposed to the Confederate Army, which fought against liberty and equality for all,” Holmes told commissioners.

In 1958, Congress granted U.S. veterans-benefits rights to those who fought for the Confederacy, allowing for military pensions for Confederate veterans, their widows and their children.

Holmes also took issue with the commission soliciting private funding for the move.

“This is not just a matter of injustice in asking those who have suffered the offense of the statue to pay the bill for having the offense removed, though such a decision is tantamount to expecting a defendant who has just been declared innocent of the charges against him to pay for the removal of the shackles he wore into the courtroom,” Holmes said.

No one on the commission responded to Holmes’ remarks, although Walker, who presided over the meeting in Mayor Bill Mutz’s absence, thanked Holmes for her comments.

Walker said Wednesday that the people who came before the commission and asked that the monument be moved from Munn Park, the town's central square, should back up their ideas with funding.

"Step up to the plate and make it happen," Walker said. "I thought it would be a slower process, and that's why I made the motion for the city to upfront the money."

When asked if the NAACP should contribute, he answered "whatever organizations and people" who asked should contribute.

Commissioner Michael Dunn said the slow pace of private funding shows what public opinion on the issue really is.

"In my opinion, it is further evidence that the greater percentage of our residents do not want it moved," Dunn said.

Dunn is continuing to explore proposing an ordinance to prevent any other monument from being moved in the future. The ordinance is based on one written by David Brewer, president of the Polk County Historical Association, and sent to the commission last year. It is titled the “Corporal Ronald R. Payne/Officer Arnulfo Crispin/City of Lakeland Armed Forces and First Responders History and Heritage Protection Ordinance." Both Payne and Crispin died in the line of duty.

The City Commission then declined to take up the ordinance for debate. But since being sworn into office in January, Commissioner Michael Dunn has taken up the cause. He had proposed the ordinance at his first regular commission meeting in January but received no second from his six colleagues to put it up for debate. He has continued advocating for the law and has had no additional success.

The ordinance reads that “the commission desires to protect existing monuments to armed forces and first responders on City property from relocation, removal, disturbance, alteration, renaming, rededicating, or other disturbance” and “any such relocation, removal, disturbance, alteration, renaming, or rededicating exhibits disrespect for both the memory of those armed forces service members and first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice and the deeds and the sacrifices of every veteran and first responder.”

It also states that federal legislation does not protect local war, military and first responder memorials and monuments on non-federal land.

“We have not had formal discussion on it yet,” Dunn said, “so it is nowhere near a first reading yet."

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